


Definitions and cages

by Clarisse (transnymphtaire)



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, M/M, Rapunzel AU, Tomarry Dark Spring Exchange
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-29
Updated: 2017-04-29
Packaged: 2018-10-25 12:24:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,708
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10764213
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/transnymphtaire/pseuds/Clarisse
Summary: You can't help but get emotionally attached to someone after 14 years connected to their soul.Voldemort only wants to keep Harry safe, from the war and from the impostor.





	Definitions and cages

**Author's Note:**

  * For [p0nnudraws](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=p0nnudraws).



> My DSE gift for p0nnudraws!  
> Somewhat inspired by the following prompt:  
> "Harry starts interacting with the horcrux inside him. The horcrux is overprotective of Harry but doesn't care about anybody else."
> 
> Talk about pushing the deadline, hah... (I don't recommend signing up for exchanges and then moving, especially not when school is busy. I literally have a presentation on Tuesday that I have yet to work on.)

_Stockholm Syndrome [definition; noun]  
_ _an emotional attachment to a captor formed by a hostage as a result of continuous stress, dependence, and a need to cooperate for survival_

_Hostage [definition, noun]  
_ **_Archaic._ ** _a security or pledge_

_Dependence [definition; noun]  
_ _the state of relying on or needing someone or something for aid, support, or the like_

_Survival [definition, noun]  
_ _the act or fact of surviving, especially under adverse or unusual circumstances_

_Unusual Circumstances [definition]  
_ _having part of your soul connected to that of a child prophesized to kill you_

* * *

 The man that had risen out of the melting cauldron was an impostor.

_Impostor [definition, noun]  
_ _a person who practices deception under an assumed character, identity, or name_

Voldemort - the only part of his soul with any right to claim the name - had spent the last thirteen years not as something less than human, but intimately connected to someone that he had once wanted to kill.

_Once [definition, adverb]  
_ _at one time in the past; formerly_

The man that had risen out of the melting cauldron still wanted to kill Harry Potter.

_Still [definition, adverb]  
_ _at this or that time; as previously_

You only had to look at the definitions to realise that they were vividly different. Voldemort scoffed at the parody of a man - more snake than human, truly - that had tried to intimidate what was _his_. He had always been possessive, and he would not share even with himself when their goals didn’t align.

_Possessive [definition, adjective]  
_ _desirous of possessing, especially excessively so_

_Align [definition, verb]  
_ _to join with others in a cause_

Had the impostor only been able to see the truth, been able to understand what Harry Potter meant, it would never had to come to this.

* * *

Being confined to someone else’s soul, someone else’s head, his strength isn’t the same as it once was. He could have tried to stop the dreams that the impostor sent, he could had tried to keep Harry from leaving for the Ministry, but then he wouldn’t had any strength left for when it mattered.

When the impostor tries to intrude on what is _his_ , Voldemort is enraged.

_Intrude [definition, verb]  
_ _to thrust oneself without permission or welcome_

_Enraged [definition, verb]  
_ _extremely angry; put into a rage; infuriated_

He has fourteen years worth of gathered strength; fourteen years worth of stolen magic to make use of. Voldemort locks Harry away. It is an act of mercy, really. He could feel the pain that the impostor’s intrusion gave way for, could get glimpses of what Harry had been forced to endure.

> _Harry was locked in the coils of a creature with red eyes, so tightly bound that Harry didn’t know where his body ended and the creature’s began; they were fused together, bound by pain, and there was no escape-_

Voldemort gave an indignant roar as he took all his strength, all the stolen magic and used it to force the impostor out of Harry’s, out of _his_ body. It took less of him than expected, his emotions unexpectedly fueling his attempt.

_Emotions [definition]  
_ _the impostor’s only weakness; what tells them apart_

With Harry still locked away, he was left in an empty body, a body that he could _use_. Voldemort looked around curiously; as if he was a child with a new toy. He wouldn’t be able to keep Harry locked away for long - it was Harry’s body after all - but he could use this. _He could use this_.

He would just have to get away from Dumbledore first.

* * *

Ironically, Dumbledore gave him the time he needed. A portkey took Harry’s body away from the Ministry atrium, to Dumbledore’s office. All Voldemort had to do was to use Harry’s wand - a perfect fit - to freeze the paintings, and then walk out of there.

He couldn’t, shouldn’t, leave Hogwarts, but there would be no need to leave either. All he needed was somewhere safe to lock Harry’s body away. Others could fight the impostor, it did not matter to him. He wouldn’t die as long as he had Harry.

Slytherin’s Chamber was the first place to cross his mind, but it wouldn’t be perfect. It lacked many of the things that a human needed, not to mention the rotting corpse of the basilisk. The second place he thought of was the Room of Requirement, which presented itself as a much better option.

_Requirement [definition, noun]  
_ _that which is required; a thing demanded or obligatory_

The only problem was that the room could very well answer to Harry too unless he was _very_ specific in creating it. Voldemort smiled to himself as he walked towards the staircases to get to the seventh floor.

Except for the emptiness of inhabiting the body while Harry was locked away, Harry’s body fit him much better than he imagined that the impostor’s body ever could. It was fully human, and it was still pure from dark magic - even counting in when his Harry had tried to _crucio_ Bellatrix earlier. If only Harry’s body had still had virgin blood too, then it would be the purest thing he had ever wanted, would be what he _deserved_ , but no - the impostor had taken that away from him by forcibly taking Harry’s blood for the “resurrection” ritual. He refused to acknowledge it as a real resurrection when it was an impostor using his name, and he had never been dead.

_Pure [definition, adjective]  
_ _free from anything of a different, inferior, or contaminating kind; free from extraneous matter_

_Virgin [definition, adjective]  
_ _not previously exploited, cultivated, tapped, or used_

_Resurrection [definition]  
_ _the act of rising from the dead; not the act of gaining a new body_

He reached the Room of Requirement without crossing path with any of Harry’s classmates or teachers. There was not even a ghost in sight, which could either be a blessing or a trap. Voldemort had not expected the emptiness of the corridors, not with how the news of what happened at the Ministry must already have travelled. He would not complain to the wind about something that acted in his advantage, but it made him wary all the same. Inhabiting not his own body, but _Harry’s_ \- though it could be considered his - meant that his senses were duller than he would wish. They were impressive for an average human, though nothing was average when it came to Harry Potter. Voldemort felt how Harry’s lips stretched in a smile, with a natural ease to them that had been formerly unknown to him. It felt foreign to smile without planning to do so, to not have his cheek muscles hurt in protest.

Not wanting to risk getting caught out in the corridor, Voldemort dismissed the distracting thoughts. He would be able to explore Harry’s body to his heart’s content in just a short moment; he would only have to produce a room - a cage of sorts - that Harry would be unable to escape first.

He walked back and forth in front of the stretch of wall three times, asking for a room that could not be left without giving the definition of freedom in latin. It was the only freedom that Harry would be forced to be without; Voldemort was not needlessly cruel to what was his. He felt secure in his knowledge that Harry would be unable to figure it out; the boy had never been interested in latin, and the definition he had in mind was very specific.

_Freedom [definition, noun]  
_ _the state of being free or at liberty rather than in confinement or under physical restraint_

_Libertatem [definition, nomen]  
_ _de statu liber esse ad libertatem seu potius quam sub corporalis refrenatio vel alligatum_

The door that appeared when he stopped was ordinary, made of wood just like the thousands of other doors in the castle, with no engravings or unique door handle to make it attract attention. As soon as he entered the room, the door would disappear from the outside, but the anonymity of it gave a sense of security. It was a feeling that Voldemort pushed aside immediately as he didn’t dare trust a castle that moved on its own, but he opened the door nonetheless. What other options did he have if he wanted to keep Harry from the war, from the impostor?

There was only the lowest of sounds as the door closed behind him. Voldemort looked over his shoulder to make sure that the door disappeared from sight before inspecting the room. There was a fireplace, a bed, a partial wall that separated a toilet, sink and shower from the rest of the room, a closet with clothes that he suspected would fit Harry perfectly, and a window that overlooked not the schoolyard but the ocean. A bookshelf and a desk appeared as he inspected the room to make sure that it had all that Harry would need. Curious as to if the room would attempt to help Harry by placing books on latin and definitions, Voldemort walked closer to the bookshelf. To his pleasant surprise, the books were taken from not the school library but from the room of hidden things, on subjects that had been forgotten but were worthy to learn.

Not willing to use more energy on possessing Harry’s body when the immediate threat had long since disappeared, Voldemort sat down in the armchair that had appeared in front of the fireplace, and then gave back the body.

He did not lock himself away, unwilling to distance himself from Harry after the beautiful hour of using Harry’s body, of an intimacy he had not known before. Instead, he remained, hovering close to Harry's consciousness.

* * *

It was like a rush of euphoria when the mostly empty shell of a body filled out once more with the wonder that was Harry Potter. He basked in the warmth of Harry's very essence, warming him to the core when he hadn't been aware that he was frozen without Harry to begin with. It should not surprise him, yet it did the same way as many other of Harry's qualities did.

He had not enjoyed flying with a broom before it was Harry that was soaring through the air. He had not cared for the sweetness of treacle tarts before it was Harry that tasted one. He had not found comfort in red before it was Harry that had found comfort in Lily Evans’ hair, the Gryffindor dorm, the Weasley family.

Voldemort would be the first to admit that while Harry could have been brilliant in Slytherin, it would also have ruined him. Even if your ambition were unrelated to power, Slytherin had a hierarchy in place that couldn't be avoided - not when he was a student, and certainly not now, when the Slytherin house was alienated more than ever.

_Alienated [definition, verb]  
_ _to be caused to be withdrawn or isolated from the objective world_

The world should consider itself lucky that Harry Potter was a Gryffindor, like his parents before him.

* * *

Harry had found it easy to be brave in the Ministry, when he had had his friends with him, when the Order of the Phoenix had come to their help, when Dumbledore had been there. He found it hard to be brave now, when the world flowed back in after Voldemort had possessed him; had filled up his very being; had raped his soul.

_Rape [definition, noun]  
_ _an act of plunder, violent seizure, or abuse; despoliation; violation_

He found it hard to be brave now, when Sirius was dead, when he didn't know where he was.

Harry stood from the armchair in which he had been sitting. He ignored the sensation of his head spinning from the sudden gravitational shift as he looked around, taking in the details of the room. It was a far cry from the cell he would have expected if Voldemort captured him, but it was no room that he could place. It certainly wasn't the hospital wing that he could have expected.

The absence of a door was made worse as he got closer to the window, only to see the ocean spread out underneath. He would have opened it, but there was nothing to open it with; no window clasp; nothing to hit the window glass with except books. The other furniture was far too heavy or would have no impact, like the pillows on the bed.

Unless… did he still have his wand? He had expected it to be gone, yet it was resting on the desk. Harry almost threw himself at it, expecting it to disappear at the very last second. It didn't.

Warmth blossomed through him as he grasped the wand, as he aimed it at the window with a cry of _alohomora_. The spell hit the window, but the window remained as it was, did not even give a click of being unlocked. Harry walked closer to try to push it open, but it remained stuck. Starting to get desperate, he tried the banishing spell instead. Still nothing.

He racked his brain for spells. _Diffindo_ didn’t even harm the glass. _Evanesco_ was no more help than the banishing spell; it only lead him to be momentarily distracted by the difference between vanishing and banishing something.

_Vanish [definition, verb]  
_ _to cause to disappear_

_Banish [definition, verb]  
_ _to compel to depart; send, drive, or put away_

Not in Ravenclaw for a reason, finding the need to escape much heavier than the need to debate definitions, Harry pushed the thought away. He needed more spells; surely one would work?

A desperate plea of _expulso_ left him, but while the wall cracked at the explosion, the window remained intact. He didn’t want to give up, but if not even an explosion could give way to freedom, then he had no other choice. Voldemort - if that truly was his captor - would regret leaving him his wand when that time came.

* * *

 Voldemort watched on with delight as Harry tried to escape. The feeling of Harry’s magic was addicting; even after all this time, he could not get enough. It made it worth leaving Harry’s wand within easy reach.

He could have hidden it, but what purpose would it have served? It was better this way; Harry was unable to leave and no one else had access to the room, but the freedom that the use of magic gave remained. Otherwise, it would be like keeping a songbird that didn’t sing, though he had caged Harry for the sake of safety, not the sake of entertainment.

If he hadn’t stolen Harry away, Harry would surely have heard the prophecy from Dumbledore, would surely not been given time to mourn his godfather. Harry would have been in constant danger and urged to fight. This was for the best, Voldemort was convinced. Only him and Harry, until the war was over.

* * *

The ocean outside the window never changed. The sky remained clear, the ocean remained calm, and the sun didn’t move. Harry would not had been able to tell that time passed at all, if not for the food that came, and the Daily Prophets that it was accompanied by.

He assumed that house elves delivered the food, but he never saw anyone. Voldemort never came to taunt him. If not for the undestroyable window and the nonexistent door, it would be as if he wasn’t in captivity at all.

Harry had spent the first three days staying awake for as long as possible, his wand always nearby; but as time passed and nobody came, he allowed himself to be lured into a sense of security. He allowed himself to relax, to mourn Sirius, to wonder about his friends, about Dumbledore. He allowed himself to exist without a purpose. He still wanted to escape, but it was no longer a pressing need.

His heart ached at the thought of never seeing his friends again. He cried himself to sleep, destroyed the furniture, but it made no difference. The furniture would fix itself, and he would remain alone, like a captured princess in a tower, like a bird in a cage.

The world could be set on fire by Death Eaters, and he would never know. A war could be raging outside his window, and he would never know.

**Author's Note:**

> So... I kinda feel like it could be finished here, but also like I could write more. I really need to study though, and the deadline is basically up, so I decided that it was probably best to post it.
> 
> But if anyone wants more, I'm definitely up for writing more.
> 
> Oh, and the latin might be incorrect? I used a translation site and double-checked it in google translate.


End file.
